9781422274224

This illustration depicts the 1619 arrival of 20 African captives at Jamestown, in the British colony of Virginia. By the end of the seventeenth century, slavery would be legal throughout Britain’s North American colonies.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND Abolitionists worked for the abolition, or elimination, of slavery Arson is the crime of deliberately setting a fire for evil or bad purposes. Barracoons were enclosures or barracks where Africans were held temporarily when they arrived and were awaiting sale as slaves To emancipate someone is to give him his freedom from slavery Indentured servants were people who were bound by law to work for someone for a set period of years until their debt to that person had been paid. These servants were not free, but they did have certain rights, unlike slaves, who were considered to be property

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